exploder

[pfadams]

PTC/PROE
Listen carefully EXPLODER GOOD, LEAVE IT ALONE.

Paul Adams
Sonics & Materials

[rrich]

I second that..

[mdebower]

Well said, short and to the point!

[mreece]

This topic was raised in June at the conference, which resulted in some very good and often emotional feedback from the members.

It would be interesting to me to hear from PTC and our PTC/User board on the current status of this topic.

What are the current plans for the exploder and the PTC Community based on the feedback?

[DonSenchuk]

Just a guess here...

The status is "holding pattern until people stop freaking out."

If everyone will forgive me for foretelling the future, once the fury over the announcement dies down it will change to "moving ahead as planned," followed by swift implementation.

They may or may not give an explanation as to why they can't figure out the technology on how to implement a mailing list that has been going strong for -- how long now? A decade plus?

[mreece]

I am guessing the exploder has been in place for close to two decades. By the way, Thank You very to Don Patterson who I believe led that activity! Whether there is a future for the exploder or not, it has served us very well for a long time!

[DonSenchuk]

Well there we go.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[amedina]

implementing an email system means I don't have to login to their site when
ever I want to find an answer. That means they do not have a clue how
useful "their" data is. But for me its great. I just login to my gmail and
use the unmatched power of Gmail to find my answer quickly. I have all
posts to all exploders at my hand even if PTC wants to s ensure a post or
if PTC.com goes down for a week.

Not having an email system means "OUR" data is PTC's. If they want to
delete an email, they go ahead and delete it. If their server goes down, I
don't even know who can tell me what their phone number is so I can
complaint. Basically they control the whole enchilada. And I totally agree
that they are just wanting until the dust settles.

I have a feeling that the dust wont settle and we'll just make some other
forum that already exists bigger. I think PTC's user site just completely
sucks no matter how many search strings and Boolean they add. It just
doesn't match my gmail google search function. What I have seen however is
that some of their results lead directly to useless purchasable
documentation/tutorials and training.

Its almost as if they want take our great collective knowledge, muffle it
and obfuscate it, then compare it to the "better" documents they can sell.
So imagine getting a check-in error from PDMlink this morning, then coming
to the exploder, searching for the term, finding all about the extrude
function and how you can push and pull and save to JT, and at the side bar
of the page, if you can spare 15 bucks, today you can become a PDMlink
expert in 500 pages. That is death by book store. Maybe death by random
search result is better.

So that is probably the reason why they will not send out the posts via
email. that would be sending out your product for free. But not sending it
to my gmail account makes the product useless. To me at least. I've
proposed the usage of Diaspora. or some other decentralized forum so that
PTC doesn't take us for a ride and so that we never give PTC the chance to
do so again in the future.


On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 6:31 AM, Senchuk, Donald <->
wrote:

> Just a guess here…
>
>
>
> The status is “holding pattern until people stop freaking out.”
>
>
>
> If everyone will forgive me for foretelling the future, once the fury over
> the announcement dies down it will change to “moving ahead as planned,”
> followed by swift implementation.
>
>
>
> They may or may not give an explanation as to why they can’t figure out
> the technology on how to implement a mailing list that has been going
> strong for -- how long now? A decade plus?
>
>
>
> *From:* Schaaf, John (MN10) [

[TomU]

Just to clarify, the PTC Community DOES send out emails automatically if you want it to. Just choose “Receive email notifications” once for each area you’re interested in (Creo, Mathcad, Windchill, etc.).

[cid:image001.png@01CFDD7E.0DEFA260]

I use both PTC User and the Community and get emails from both systems for all posts. The only difference (and I know it’s a big one for a lot of people) is you have to login to the community to post replies. Frankly, with a web browser’s ability to remember your password, I really don’t see that as a hindrance. I login once in the morning an just leave the window minimized. If anything new comes along in my email, I just follow the link back to the web page and respond. Pretty straight forward.

Yes, it is very helpful to be able to search through old emails – across all forums, communities, and sites at the same time. ☺

Tom U.

[DonSenchuk]

“Its almost as if they want take our great collective knowledge, muffle it and obfuscate it, then compare it to the "better" documents they can sell. So imagine getting a check-in error from PDMlink this morning, then coming to the exploder, searching for the term, finding all about the extrude function and how you can push and pull and save to JT, and at the side bar of the page, if you can spare 15 bucks, today you can become a PDMlink expert in 500 pages. That is death by book store. Maybe death by random search result is better.”

This is brilliant. It’s exactly what searching on the PTC Tech Support site is like. Copy the error text exactly and the results are so random you’re forced to make sure you typed it in correctly. Or, you switch to ‘search for exact phrase’ and get no results. Nope. None. That error has never been encountered during the use of PTC software. Ever. Never-ever. And then, opening a ticket results in getting sent a link to a CS with that exact phrase in it!

The real wonder is that they wonder why people are defending the Exploder so vehemently.

[mreece]

I am trying to keep an open mind. The current exploder tool is very old technology, as has been pointed out by proponents of the Community. Old technology does not necessarily mean obsolete technology and it continues to serve me well.

At this point, I am not happy with the Community site operations. For me, it is very hard to find information. That may be because I don't understand how to get the value out of the tool. I fear the control of the site being in PTC's hands.

If we (PTC/User membership) are going to abandon the exploder, I believe PTC needs to take responsibility for providing a superior solution to the current technology.

[mreece]

I got confirmation that 1989 timeframe was the first exploder came on-line. It was hosted at one of our Board Member's company until Pro/User got its own public website.

[amedina]

I exaggerated, there are no direct links to 15 dollar PTC publications,
just results that do not help as much as the results I get from ptcuser.org.

PTC is awesome. Hurray! Sorry ptc!

[ScottPearson]

Donald & All…,

I made this same point months ago because I have experienced the dilemma you mentioned MANY times.

Until PTC can develop their own online Knowledge Base to actually give a meaningful result when searching for an EXACT error message presented by the very software PTC themselves wrote, what faith should users have that a PTC-run Exploder could be “better” for users than what we have now?

To turn it around, the folks at PTC who are masterminding the Exploder takeover could really gain some favor with users – and perhaps actual support for a PTC-run Exploder – if they would first get their online Knowledge Base in order.

PTC should take the good-faith step of making their existing online resources meet (exceed?) customer expectation.

PTC expends a fair amount of resources on focus groups already. Why not convene a User Experience event at PTC Live Global dedicated to the customers’ Online Knowledge Base? Let PTC reps watch how users do NOT find search results for exact error messages. Let PTC reps watch a user get HUNDREDS of poorly-prioritized results for a very targeted search criteria.

The worst aspect of this is that it could all be resolved with a stroke of a pen from one PTC exec. A simple three-line memo with the following directives:


1. Produce a list of every Error Message written into our code.

2. Produce a Tech Doc for each Error Message.

3. Tweak the Knowledge Base search engine to force the corresponding Tech Doc to be first search result for Error Message query.

#1 & #2 should be on the shelf already. (Please don’t tell me that even PTC Support doesn’t know about every Error Message and what they mean.)
#3 should be easy. Call Google and ask.

But the fact that this three-line memo hasn’t been written is why so many users have so little faith in PTC taking over the Exploder.

All users want useful, well-functioning, no-cost online resources. And if PTC is the entity providing those resources, all would embrace that.

But past is prologue. Let history be our guide. Inject any over-used phrase you want. Regrettably, PTC has earned its reputation which is reflected in the overwhelmingly negative responses voiced regarding the Exploder take-over.

Note to PTC: Prove us wrong. Not by promising a great next-generation Exploder on ptc.com, but by delivering an existing PTC Knowledge Base that users will consider second to none.

Prove you can drive before asking to be our chauffeur.

Scott Pearson
Senior Designer
CAD System Administrator

[cid:image006.png@01CFDD8D.4B270790]S O U T H W E S T R E S E A R C H I N S T I T U T E®
Space Science and Engineering Division
Space Systems Directorate
Department of Space Engineering
6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238

[mlocascio]

Verb good

[scooke]

To steal from Scott’s analogy….



What they have said is



“You know that we can’t drive very well, but we are about to fire the chauffeur who has driven you well for 25 years, and we are going to be your chauffeur from now on.”